Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued violent leftists were morally righteous. “No, not the same. One side is racist, bigoted, Nazi. The other opposes racism and bigotry. Morally different universes,” Romney tweeted Tuesday night. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio took a similar tone in assigning “100% to blame” for the Charlottesville violence on white supremacists — which amounts to a total exculpation of antifa. Rubio also tweeted out a poorly-worded statement that may have explicitly endorsed left-wing violence: “When entire movement built on anger & hatred towards people different than you,it justifies & ultimately leads to violence against them,” the senator...

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) proudly wants to be called a “globalist.” Flake, who is up for reelection in 2018 and is vulnerable to a primary challenge, reportedly “embraces” that label in his new book, which bashes President Donald Trump. It also reportedly argues that the “nationalist” and “populist” America-first policies that got Trump elected in a historic win for the ages and brought millions of new voters into the Republican Party do not represent the GOP’s future. While promoting his book to the media elites, Flake has blasted pro-Trump Republicans for being “xenophobic” and their “nativism.” On CNN on Tuesday,...

Praising Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), now battling brain cancer, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said McCain is thinking beyond the health care bill. “You know, I love the man,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) told a news conference on Tuesday, after the Senate vote on a motion to proceed to a health care bill that is open to amendments. “He's a great man," Schumer said of McCain. "We've been close friends. He even said to me when I called him this weekend, ‘Let's get immigration reform done,’ so he's thinking of the future. As you know, he and I worked on...

The NYPD won’t cooperate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seeking to repatriate illegal immigrants, Mayor Bill de Blasio told RTVi, or Russian Television International. “The NYPD will not participate as immigration enforcement agents because we have, for decades, built a close working relationship with immigrant communities,” de Blasio said. “Our police force is not going to be out there knocking on people’s door and it is not going to share information about people’s documentation status with the federal authorities.”

George W. Bush said he favored a welcoming immigration policy and warned that the media is "indispensable to democracy" in an interview with Matt Lauer Monday that seemed to take several shots at President Trump. When Lauer asked Bush directly if he was for or against Trump's immigration ban, Bush said, "I am for an immigration policy that's welcoming and upholds the law." "I think it's very important for all of us to recognize that one of our great strengths is for people to be able to worship the way they want to, or not worship at all," Bush said....

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) says he came to the United States illegally as a nine-year-old child, eventually returning to the Dominican Republic with his family to follow proper immigration procedures. He is the first member of Congress to have once been an illegal alien, and he told CNN on Wednesday morning that he objects to the Trump administration’s expanded immigration enforcement because it “unleashes the hound dogs,” expedites the removal of illegal aliens and fractures families. He noted that “many people come here” illegally because they aspire for their children to eventually become Americans. […] Espaillat said many of...

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) — Speakers at a Vatican-sponsored conference in Northern California — including an archbishop — denounced President Donald Trump’s orders on immigration and travel and vowed to fight them at a meeting Friday. Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said President Barack Obama deported a high number of people, but the harsh tone and cruelty coming out of the new administration was prompting mass fear and panic. “They’re playing with people’s emotions and toying with their lives and futures, and that is not right,” said Gomez, who noted his city has an estimated 1 million people who are living...

A report shows nearly one in five immigrants in the U.S. illegally live in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. The report released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center estimates more than 2 million immigrants in the country illegally lived in the two areas in 2014. Pew says the country has about 11.1 million immigrants who do not have legal status. …

We should not allow Dreamers to forget that this is a nation of law and they received mercy. On June 15, 2012, President Obama signed an executive order to protect those who arrived illegally to the United States as minors. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals provides a two-year window to shield these people from deportation and allow them to work. They must have been under 16 when they arrived, be in school or have completed school, and have no criminal record. The order produced consternation on two fronts. First, the nature of the action. Many feel that immigration policy, legal...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made the following statement about last week’s immigration executive orders:President Donald Trump has announced three executive orders addressing immigration that are an affront to core union and American values. Building a wall on our border, scapegoating immigrants and refugees, and shutting out people of Muslim faith will do nothing to uplift working people in our country. To the contrary, these orders sow fear of raids among workers, promote racial profiling and erode core constitutional protections. As such, they are a clear attack on our members, and elevated fear is a direct obstacle to workers’ rights to...

Ryan said on sanctuary cities, “Donald and I agree completely on that. There is no daylight between us on that. so, what do I mean that? Sanctuary cities are a violation of the rule of law and they are not to be tolerated. We agree with that 100%. And that means if you want federal assistance, you’re not going to get it. You’ve got to enforce the law.” He added that Congress is working on two things: “to secure the border, and to enforce our laws with respect to criminal — violent criminals who are illegal aliens.” Ryan said on...

But Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert revealed Ryan pledged to him he would not to move on either of those fronts. Breitbart reports: “House Speaker Paul Ryan and I had two substantive private discussions on the legislative agenda for the 115th Congress and came to an understanding,” Gohmert told Breitbart News. One Ryan promise that won his vote, said Gohmert, was Ryan’s support for the Hastert Rule, which forbids the House Republican leadership from holding votes on bills that are not supported by the majority of the House Republican Conference. That rules prevents the GOP leadership from quietly working with Democratic...

Republicans’ grip on all levers of power stands as a mandate to the GOP-led Congress, which will move swiftly to try to undo eight years of outgoing President Barack Obama’s agenda. With Republican President-elect Donald Trump weeks away from assuming office, GOP lawmakers plan to open the 115th Congress on Tuesday and immediately take steps to repeal Obama’s health care law. Beyond that, they’ll look at a tax overhaul, reversing Obama-era environmental regulations and other conservative priorities. Republicans will face some obstacles. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says Democrats “stand ready to fight vigorously” to protect health care and other...

DEC 9 2016 Is Trump Softening on Young Immigrants? Senators Hope So, Offer Bill by SUZANNE GAMBOA WASHINGTON - Seizing on President-elect Donald Trump's "encouraging" comments in a Time interview, two U.S. senators are pushing for a stopgap protection from deportation for young immigrants who arrived or stayed in the country illegally as children. Senate Minority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., partnered to introduce legislation Friday that would protect the young immigrants should Trump repeal the executive action before Congress takes up immigration reform. The protection would be temporary to keep them from being deported while...

Sen. Lindsey Graham is worried Donald Trump's floundering presidential campaign will cost the Senate Republicans their majority. "People are getting pretty nervous about our candidates because he's in a death spiral here and nobody knows where the bottom is at," the South Carolina Republican told the New York Times. The Republican presidential nominee overhauled his campaign this week following a string of controversial comments that angered many in the party. But it is unclear if that will help Trump avoid the fall he's seen in recent national and state polls. Specifically, Republicans worry that Trump's struggles in the swing states...

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, who has supported forms of immigration reform since he was a House staffer in the 1990s, declared that he would "debate anybody" who calls the current bipartisan effort "amnesty." "Earned legalization is not amnesty," Ryan said during a forum on immigration sponsored by the National Association of Manufacturers. "I will debate anybody who tries to suggest that these ideas that are moving through Congress are amnesty. They're not. Amnesty is wiping the slate clean and not paying any penalty for having done something wrong." I think that's a fine position Paul Ryan has...

A "divider" like GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will have a hard time winning Ohio, an important battleground that could help decide the election in November, said Buckeye State Gov. John Kasich, a former Republican presidential candidate. "Ohio's a snapshot of the country. People in Ohio want to see a positive agenda, a positive way to move forward," Kasich said Friday in an interview at the Union League of Philadelphia. He attended a fund-raiser for Brian Fitzpatrick, a Bucks County Republican running for an open congressional seat. Kasich's remarks came a day after Trump accepted the Republican Party's nomination at...

One-time Republican presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will be running to keep his Senate seat, reversing course on his initial decision not to seek reelection. In an interview with the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Rubio explained what was behind his change of heart. "I think that the point that really drove me to change my mind is that as we enter this kind of new chapter in our history here is, there's another role the Senate plays that I think can be really important in the years to come," he said. "And that's the power given to it...